High Performance Learning Communities
Contact: Lauren Resnick
Learning Research and Development Center
University of Pittsburgh
3939 O'Hara Street
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260
(412) 624-3051
This project focuses on how student achievement improves when professional development is strengthened and expectations and standards are raised.
This project is a multi-level, multi-year, multi-stage process of extending District 2's current professional development and instructional improvement strategy from a primary focus on content-driven improvement to a broader, standards-based effort organized around (a) a coherent theory of learning; (b) explicit performance standards; and (c) new assessments of student learning calibrated to standards. This process combines systematic research at the classroom, school, and system levels, with attention to interaction across levels; it monitors the progress and emerging problems of the new strategy; and it feeds back systematic research to serve as the basis for improving the strategy.
Young Children's Synthesis and Profile Project
Contact: Jeanne Brooks-Gunn
Center for Young Children and Families
Teachers College, Columbia University
New York, New York 10027
(212) 678-3904
This project is in collaboration with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the Department of Health and Human Services. The Young Children's Synthesis and Profile Project will conduct an in-depth study and knowledge synthesis of national early childhood initiatives. The project will result in an integration of work and a compilation of lessons learned rather than an encyclopedia of all early childhood projects conducted over the past 25 years. All projects to be synthesized will focus on improving child or family well-being. The work will include initiatives designed for children from birth through eight years of age. Specific outcomes for children will be studied and defined in terms of readiness for preschool and school. Readiness includes physical health, cognitive development, social skills, and emotional health. Family well-being will also be examined as an important outcome in and of itself, as well as a contributor to the well-being of children. The initiatives to be studied fall into two categories: (1) Major longitudinal studies of children and families, focusing on how America's children grow and become ready for school and beyond; and (2) Major demonstration programs that exist or are beginning. The Report will be available in early 1999
The Relationship Between Early Non-parental Child Care Quality and Later School Readiness: The Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods
Contact: Felton Earls
Harvard School of Public Health
Department of Maternal and Child Health
677 Huntington Avenue
Kresge 310
Boston, Massachusetts 02115-6096
(617) 432-1227
The Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods is a major, interdisciplinary study aimed at deepening society's understanding of the causes and pathways of juvenile delinquency, adult crime, substance abuse, and violence. Based in Chicago and directed from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, the Project brings together scientists from a wide range of disciplines and institutions across the country. It is funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the National Institute of Justice, the National Institute on Early Childhood Development and Education in the U.S. Department of Education, and the National Institute of Mental Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. From 1994 until the year 2002 the project will follow 6,000 individuals and 80 communities in a coordinated effort to study the intricate pathways of social competence and antisocial behavior. The Project is unique in both size and scope, combining two studies into a single, comprehensive design. The first is an intensive study of Chicago's neighborhoods. The study is looking not only at how individuals shape their environments, but how their changing social and physical environments shape the individuals. Therefore, the second part looks at the changing circumstances of people's lives as well as the personal characteristics that may lead them toward or away from a variety of antisocial behaviors. By looking at individuals and their communities--and individuals in their communities--as both change over time, the Project seeks to unravel the complex influences of community, family, and individual factors on human development.
The National Institute on Early Childhood Development and Education (ECI) is supplementing this larger project in order to examine the relationship between the quality of early non-parental child care and later readiness for school. This supplement supports the following additional long-term data collection tasks: information child care quality from parent ratings and researcher observation (for the birth, 3- year old age groups, and 5- year old age groups); measurements of children's emerging reading abilities (for the birth and 3- year old age groups); and measurements of children's language development (for the birth age group).
The Effect of Comprehensive Interventions on Young Children's Learning and Development
Contact: Roxane Kaufmann
National Technical Assistance Center
for Children's Mental Health
Georgetown University Child Development Center
3307 M Street, NW, Suite #401
Washington, DC 20007-4768
(202) 687-5000
Through this interagency agreement, the National Institute on Early Childhood Development and Education is funding a qualitative research study of young children already being served by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
At the end of Fiscal Year 1995, SAMHSA awarded grant supplements to eight of these demonstration communities in order to focus the service efforts on adults who have children from birth through seven years of age. The children have been identified as high risk because their families have, or are at-risk of having, substance abuse or mental health problems.
The National Institute on Early Childhood Development and Education (ECI) is contributing funds to SAMHSA in order to conduct a quantitative and qualitative study of 180 children served at three of these eight sites. With ECI support, the National Technical Assistance Center for Children's Mental Health at the Georgetown University Child Development Center, and Mathematic Policy Research in Princeton, NJ, will determine if and how the intensive mental health, substance abuse prevention and substance abuse treatment, and health interventions affect the young children's learning, development, and school readiness.
As a result of this research, we will have a better understanding of what types of interventions and supports work best to enhance school readiness in young children who are at-risk because of their families; substance abuse and mental health problems. We also will have a set of qualitative studies that document and describe how families and young children respond to intensive supports and interventions.
Project Jump Start: A Preschool Approach to Reinventing Education
Contact: Marty Bell
Community Development
Jefferson County Public Schools
P.O. Box 34020
Louisville, Kentucky 40232-4020
(502) 485-3949
Jefferson County Public Schools' Project Jump Start, a preschool approach to reinventing education, is a program which provides a developmentally appropriate preschool education for eligible children (four-year olds whose families meet income guidelines for free lunch under the National School Lunch Program). In addition, the project coordinates medical, mental health, and social services to these children and their families and promotes interagency collaboration among organizations serving these children. This research looks at the effects of the Jump Start Program upon the performance of low-income elementary students and how well the parents of elementary students make decisions about educational programs that support local school desegregation. The project addresses two issues: (1) the inclusion of low-income, single parents and significant adult male caregivers in selecting schools of choice to support local school desegregation; and (2) the lack of knowledge about the performance of elementary students who have received preschool education on authentic assessments. The intent of this project is to show that authentic assessments provide valid information about the impact of early childhood education on the academic achievement of at-risk students.
Oakland 2000 Ready To Learn
Contact: Kate Dowling
Oakland Unified School District
1025 Second Avenue
Oakland, California 94606
(510) 879-8328
The Oakland 2000: Ready to Learn project is an innovative collaborative of over 175 partners from local, state, and federal governments, businesses, service providers, educational institutions, and individuals throughout the community committed to supporting the children of Oakland, California, so that they will come to school prepared to succeed. The Oakland 2000 project will: expand and maintain the network of Oakland 2000 Ready to Learn partners; provide technical assistance to establish parenting labs at agencies that have adopted Oakland 2000 objectives; work closely with parents, tutors, and service providers designed as Oakland 2000 Ready to Learn Centers to carry out the Centers' vision; empower all people involved with Oakland 2000 to learn activities through peer-to-peer tutoring, linkages with students of higher education, information sharing, access to information and the skills to utilize it; launch and maintain activities which allow for dissemination of information and undertake activities that will develop new resources to expand the scope and reach of Oakland 2000. The design and effectiveness of information regarding the project will be disseminated nationally through Healthy Cities and the "I Am Your Child Campaign" of the Families and Work Institute in New York.
National Partnership for Excellence and Accountability in Teaching (NPEAT)
Contact: Willis Hawley
College of Education
University of Maryland
College Park, Maryland 20742
(301) 405-2334
The mission of the National Partnership for Excellence and Accountability in Teaching (NPEAT) is to use knowledge from research and practice to ensure that those who teach and influence teaching are able to help all students, especially those at-risk of school failure, to achieve challenging academic standards. The 1996 report of the National Commission of Teaching and America's Future, What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future, provides direction for NPEAT's work. NPEAT is undertaking more than 30 projects in 5 interrelated program areas designed to fundamentally improve teaching in the United States: (1) standards and assessments, (2) teacher education and professional development, (3) recruitment, (4) restructuring schools as learning organizations, and (5) partnership development. Each of the five program areas includes interrelated sets of activities: (1) identification and development of consensus on ideas, principles, and promising policies and practices: (2) dissemination of knowledge and the support of related actions by partners and others; (3) identification of additional knowledge that is needed; and (4) research and development that lead to usable knowledge.
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This page last updated on January 12, 1999 (jfc)
